The David Pakman Show 7/7/25: Trump’s hands all over Texas flood catastrophe, Elon goes scorched earth
Trump's Trumped-Up Cuts Made Texas Flooding Deadlier Than Ever
The catastrophic flooding in Texas, which claimed over 100 lives, was worsened by staffing cuts made to the National Weather Service during the Trump administration. These cuts doubled the vacancies in key forecasting offices and reduced essential functions like overnight operations and weather balloon launches.
Governor Greg Abbott and others deflected blame, but the Trump administration's decisions directly undermined emergency preparedness and response. Trump himself downplayed the disaster and refused to hire back fired meteorologists despite evidence these cuts aggravated the tragedy.
This staffing deterioration happened amidst a 600-employee reduction from the National Weather Service, highlighting a clear neglect of critical public safety infrastructure under Trump.
Trump Cuts Worsened Texas Floods
- Trump-era cuts to the National Weather Service worsened the deadly Texas floods by reducing staff and emergency preparedness.
- These staffing shortages led to worse forecasting and warning coordination during a historic flood event.
Misuse of Exponential Growth
- GOP Rep. Jason Smith incorrectly used "exponential growth" to hype a minor GDP increase.
- True exponential growth means compounding increases, not a small difference like 2.8% to 3%.
